Bodysurfing through Causeway Bay…

Posts Tagged ‘turtle’

After only experiencing one hot pot eating event once before I was eager to try it again. Especially as the first one was bloody vegetarian!! So I was very happy we were invited to a very meaty hot pot event in a colleague’s apartment.

Basically hot pot involves a pot of boiling water, raw vegetables and meat. And an accoutrement of sauces and spices to mix together as your dipping concoction. It’s a very communal, social affair with everybody ladling out various things to people who can’t reach the bubbling broth of earthly delights.

This was my smorgasbord of sauces. I like soy so I had two types of soy, some spring onions and a little sesame oil. It was niiice!

Various fish balls, beef balls and tofu bits.

The pot for veggies only. VEGGIES ONLY!!

Pre-dipping into my special sauce. Yum!

The other entertainment of the night was our friend’s aquarium. I love a good aquarium and could stare at one for evvahhh.

Hi Mr. Turtle!

I think this guy is called an Axolotl; a type of salamander. We think he’s blind…

Recently when we had time on our sides and freedom in our shoes we embarked on a couple of leisurely rambles into Central through Wan Chai and Admiralty. This slalom of an event takes about an hour weaving in between delivery cart boys, meandering idlers who walk three abreast on a footpath at a pace akin to sloths. No offense internet savvy sloths.
As you get closer to Central the “suits” appear and the skin colour gets gradually lighter. The charm and authenticity around Causeway Bay and Wan Chai gives way to steel, solid, silver skyscrapers. And I’m not too opposed to that, actually. I’ll take both worlds.

So as people may gather I love the IFC 2 building, I think it’s damn cool basically so I saw this opportunity to dust of my poor Nikon D70 with it’s 300m lens and get some good angles of the IFC and the surrounding buildings.
Up on the 42nd floor of The Bank of China Tower is a little known viewing window area. At least I think it’s little know as nobody was there. The windows could do with a cleaning but other than that it gave me a good vantage point for a few snaps.

Over on the other side on Kowloon they are building what will be the tallest building in Honkers, the International Commerce Centre. It’s been like that since we got here, I think the progress has slowed due to the “problems” around the world. It will have a viewing place for the public on the 100th floor which is more than can be said for the IFC2 who punch people in the face who dare to enter their building to have a look around.

I call this Symphony In Red In A Yellow Grid. Thing. No 2.

In the background over in Tsim Tsa Tsui you can see the ferries heading to places like Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan or further afield.

Just a quick saunter away from the madding crowd and gulps of carbon monoxide is Hong Kong Park which is a little oasis of green and water, fish and turtles to calm you down and make you forget about the lack of personal space you have in your life these days.

I don’t know. Well I didn’t until I found out on the internet. They are, believe it or not, competing for “basking space”. Which I can believe as there was not much stones for them to catch the rays. Hehe silly turtles.

Some nice colourful Koi Karp.

A quick look at a Lion Dance in the IFC mall

And we opted to get the often maligned overhead tram back to Causeway Bay. It’s cheap at around 2HKD, it may take longer but is relaxing, you don’t have to walk two miles underground for the MTR and you can photograph sausage dogs from the top deck.

I doubt the chicken is that happy whatever it says on that sign.

You can get bigger versions of these pictures on my Flickr page from clicking on the above pics. More pics are there and on my Facebook page.